Foreign Policy of Iran - 20: Iran's Bold Reaction to UNSC Crimes

-COL DR. ABDUL RUFF

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The US, which had sold weapons to Tehran to kill the Iraqis for many years during and after Cold War especially during the Iraq-Iran war, since the end of that Mideast war, has longstanding economic terror sanctions in place on Iran. USA has systematically antagonized Tehran and from an ally, Iran quickly became enemy and “rogue” because the Iranian people oppose the US dictatorial approach and unilateral policies in Mideast.



Diplomatic relations between the two countries were broken in April 1980 after the American embassy in Tehran was stormed by students during Iran's Islamic Revolution. Since then the US has imposed successive rounds of sanctions, citing what it says is Iran's support for international terrorism, human rights violations and refusals to co-operate with the IAEA. The US sanctions prohibit almost all trade with Iran.





Essentially US controlled United Nations quickly ratify as many rounds of sanctions as Washington requires against Iran. Between 2006 and 2010 UN passed sanctions in reaction to its “failure” to halt uranium enrichment and co-operate with the US handle called the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) over its nuclear program. These sanctions include a ban on the supply of heavy weaponry and nuclear-related technology to Iran, a block on Iranian arms exports, and an asset freeze on key individuals and companies. Resolution 1929, passed in 2010, mandates cargo inspections to detect and stop Iran's acquisition of illicit materials.



The US expanded sanctions to target companies that aid Iran's oil and petrochemical industries, while the UK ordered all British financial institutions to stop doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Iranian central bank. Some fanatic members of the hawkish US Congress with imperialist instincts and colonial approach are sponsoring legislation urging President Obama to target Iran's central bank and any foreign institutions that do business with it, potentially reducing the flow of oil revenue to Iran and causing a drop in its oil exports. Several other countries including Switzerland, Japan, Australia and Canada have also imposed bilateral sanctions on Iran in recent years in response to US call to boycott and punish Iran.




EU, operating as an ally of both NATO and USA, added more troubles to Iran by its own version of economic terrorism. As speculated, fresh sanctions have been agreed against Iran at a meeting on January 01 of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, as international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program intensifies. The EU has imposed its own restrictions on trade in equipment which could be used for uranium enrichment and has put in place an asset freeze on a list of individuals and organisations which it believes are helping advance the country's nuclear program, and has banned the individuals on the list from entering the EU. The anti-Islamic EU added 39 people and 141 companies to the list, although it has not yet named them. Last year the EU banned the export to Iran of key equipment and technology for the refining and production of natural gas, in an attempt to hit the crucial energy sector of the Iranian economy.



The EU is expected to consider new measures by the end of this month. EU foreign ministers meet on January 30. The sanctions would halt purchase of Iranian oil by EU members such as crisis-hit Greece, which has relied on easy financing terms offered by Tehran to buy crude. Greek government sources said that Athens, thought of as a possible veto-wielding holdout, was ready to support sanctions. If the European Union decides to impose the sanctions, Greece will join them.




The EU says it does not want talks unless Iran is prepared to discuss serious steps, such as halting its enrichment of uranium. Iran has written to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton asking to restart talks over its nuclear program that collapsed a year ago.



All this would have a big impact on the Iranian economy, but given Iran's position as a major global oil exporter, an embargo could also have the consequence of driving up the global oil price and harming Western economies, in Europe in particular. The western financial markets already crippled by the recent crisis would be the loser, too.





The notorious UNSC has already passed many rounds of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment. Expanded sanctions are meant to target companies that deal with Iran's oil and petrochemical industries. The US has also sanctioned dozens of Iranian government agencies, officials and businesses over the nuclear program.



The whole US triclomatic exercise is to make Iran feel increasingly “isolated” because of the sanctions. US President B. Obama and top drone terrorist, signed into law the US bill targeting Iran's central bank on 03 Jan and it enters into force in six months' time. The Iranian national currency, the rial, has lost about 12% of its value - trading at about 17,200-18,000 rials to $1. Iranian currency is at a record low, but it has denied sanctions are to blame. USA is to blame.




Sanctions signed into law by US President Obama as a New Year gift to Iranian people signed on the Christmas Day that would cut financial institutions that work with Iran's central bank off from the U.S. financial system, blocking the main path for Iran to receive payments for its crude. The USA is pestering the anti-Islamic EU to impose new sanctions by the end of this month, possibly including a ban on oil imports and a freeze of central bank assets.



World’s top money launderer, USA has dissuaded non-US banks from dealing with Tehran saying that Iran is an area of "primary money laundering concern”. The other junior half of USA-UK terror twins, Britain ordered all British financial institutions to stop doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the central bank. Canada, a NATO ally of USA, said it would immediately ban the export to Iran of all goods used in the petrochemical, oil and gas industries. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called for "stricter sanctions" and urged EU countries to follow the US in freezing Iranian central bank assets and imposing an embargo on oil exports.



The chief concern of USA in a sustained anti-Iran campaign and various economic terror measures on Iranian people is to the general election on March 2. USA is eager to see the defeat of present Ahmadinejad government. The economic impact is being felt ahead of a nationwide parliamentary election on March 2, the first vote since the 2009 presidential election that was used by CIA and its European clusters to bring thousands of Iranian demonstrators into the streets on false allegations..

The closure threats might be a bid by Iran to remind countries contemplating sanctions of the cost of havoc on oil markets. Such threats can cause market confidence in the global oil supply to wobble and can push up oil prices and shipping insurance prices. For the EU powers debating new sanctions, this could be quite a pinch in the current economic climate.





The dictatorial USA, like its terror partners Israel and India, despise international law and commits crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, a new “US sanctions law”, if implemented fully, would make it impossible for many refineries to pay Iran for crude. It takes effect gradually and lets Obama grant waivers to prevent an oil price shock, so its precise impact is hard to gauge.






Tehran has dismissed the latest measures announced in the wake of a critical IAEA report in November. Highly enriched uranium can be processed into nuclear weapons as every nuclear power has been busy with, but Iran denies Western charges that it is trying to develop them. Tehran says its program is peaceful - it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity to meet growing domestic demand.




Iran hinted that if the US led West tried to impose sanctions on Iran's oil industry, then Iran may shut the Strait of Hormuz - a narrow 34-mile-wide (54km) channel off Iran's southern coast through which about 20% of the world's traded oil passes. But the USA says Iran could not shut it on its own because the US Fifth Fleet is nearby in Bahrain to control the region and they wouldn't “tolerate” that. And if Iran did try to do it, they argue, the country it would hurt most would be itself because Iran's government gets money and stays in power because of the sale of oil.





USA, the author of joint military exercises, has been concerned that Iran has conducted 10 days of exercises near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, test-firing several missiles. The US has said threats by Iran to restrict Gulf shipping in the event of further sanctions shows international pressure is having an effect and that economic terror measures as sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program have begun to “bite” and that Iran was trying to create a distraction.












USA has played havoc on Iran as well and Iran is in a position of weakness. The notorious veto members of the discredited UNSC, Russia and China are eager to benefit maximum from the West-Iran standoff. Even Iran's top trading partner China - which has refused to back new global sanctions against Iran - is demanding discounts to buy Iranian oil as Tehran's options narrow. Beijing has cut its imports of Iranian crude by more than half for January. Although China, India and other countries are being coerced by Washington to promote US imperialism, they are unlikely to sign up to any oil embargo, tighter Western sanctions mean such customers will be able to insist on deeper discounts for Iranian oil, reducing Tehran's income. Beijing has already been driving a hard bargain. China, which bought 11 percent of its oil from Iran during the first 11 months of last year, has cut its January purchase by about 285,000 barrels per day, more than half of the close to 550,000 bpd that it bought through a 2011 contract.










Undoubtedly US-NATO military terror prowess is the most formidable but cannot attack Iran. Nor does Israel dare do that to gain popularity indoors. The US Navy maybe overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's sea forces. The USA wants to use its military might mainly as a means of pressure. But hawkish nuts in USA look for a dangerous situation when Americans would be running out of diplomatic room to avert a confrontation. Experts still say they do not expect either USA or Tehran to charge headlong into an act of war.



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د. عبد راف


Dr. Abdul Ruff, Specialist on State Terrorism; Educationalist;Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Independent Analyst-columnist;Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements(Palestine,Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc); Anti-Muslimism and anti-Islamism are more dangerous than "terrorism" Anti-Islamic forces & terrorists are using criminal elements for terrorizing the world and they in disguise are harming genuine interests of ordinary Muslims. Global media today, even in Muslim nations, are controlled by CIA & other anti-Islamic agencies. Former university Teacher;/website:abdulruff.wordpress.com/ 91-9961868309/91-9961868309